


counterpart

by OrphanCricket



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Reality, M/M, Post-Season/Series 08 Finale, SHEITH - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 07:10:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17198909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrphanCricket/pseuds/OrphanCricket
Summary: Keith starts looking for his own happiness





	counterpart

Keith was ripped from his sleep, pain shooting up his fingers, hands, elbows. He sat up and gripped them tightly, trying to ease the burning in his lungs. Pulling up his knees to his chest he waited for the sensation to pass. It had been happening more frequently during the last weeks. And it was becoming more and more painful each time.  
When it had finally faded to a dull throb Keith swung his legs out of bed and lurched into the small adjacent bathroom. He splashed his face with water. It was lukewarm and stale from the constant recycling. A quick look into the reflective metal plate that doubled as a mirror showed him pale skin and dark circles under his eyes. They should be restocking on actual nutrition soon instead of feeding on empty calories, he thought to himself.

An arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him against a firm chest.  
‘Morning,’ Shiro hummed into his hair, planting a kiss on his temple. ‘You slept really long.’

Keith brought up a hand and ran it along Shiro’s neck. He felt like he hadn’t slept at all.  
‘Just wake me when you’re feeling lonely,’ he stated, causing a soft laugh that vibrated against his skull.

‘No, you're too grumpy. I don't want to risk losing another limb.’

Keith tugged at his ear playfully.

‘Ouch. See?’  
Shiro pulled him closer and kissed the back of his neck. ‘I can heat up some breakfast if you want .’

‘Sounds good.’

Keith caught a glimpse of their reflection in the makeshift mirror. Shiro's white hair was a stark contrast against Keith's dark one. It looked nice.

He didn't remember how long he had already been here. Aimlessly floating in space had stripped him of any sense of time. Shiro’s ship was an outdated Garrison cargo ship he had somehow managed to get his hands one. It had been rather difficult to find him but the joy of their reunion had all been worth it.

He wished he could tell Pidge that he had finally succeeded. She probably thought he was dead because she hadn't heard from him in so long but the connection between realities was very unstable. Perhaps he could get a message out to her when they passed by a black hole, he mused. Just like the edges of wormholes they transcended realities and the veil separating them was thin and frail. At the right position and time the space wolf was able to teleport through the barrier and take Keith with him. The only difficult part had been finding a reality in which Shiro was alive. Pidge had found hundreds where either of them hadn't made it during one of their various battles or where Keith hadn't been born at all, had never met Shiro or had long since died of old age. At last she had detected one, very close to their own where the events of their fight against the Galra and Honerva had played out similarly. There was just one minor difference.  
Shiro had never gotten married.

Keith had left for that reality the next day. It had been difficult to leave his wolf behind but Pidge had warned him that realities had a tendency to intertwine and if Keith and Krolia had for some reason not been able to save him during their time at the quantum abyss his existence would collapse under the inescapable pressure of logic. So Keith had sent him back, lying to him that he would return soon.  
After many months away he was sure the wolf had adjusted to him gone. That was also how long it had taken to find the other.

Shiro had been searching space for something he didn’t know after the Keith in this reality had gotten married. Which was ironic. And something the Keith from another reality could never understand. He had questioned Shiro about it but more often than not he refused to talk about it so Keith had only received the bare minimum of information.

As he studied the curve of Shiro’s jaw and the lines of his neck, he wondered how lonely Shiro must have been all these years spent in self-inflicted isolation.

‘Why don’t we restock on earth?’ Keith asked. ‘You could meet up with the others.’

Shiro tensed. ‘Why would I want that?’

Keith knew he was entering a dangerous territory but with Shiro’s arm still around him he dared to probe further.  
‘Or do you think it’d be too weird? Might freak out a few people? Although I’d love to see Pidge’s face. And Lance will probably have a heart attack.’  
The thought made him chuckle but he stopped when Shiro gave him a hard stare.

‘Doubt they’ll even want to meet up,’ Shiro said and his voice was cold. ‘Everyone’s moved on. They have their only little, happy lives now. They probably won’t even recognize us.’

Keith opened his mouth to protest but Shiro moved away and took the warmth of his body with him.  
The doors slid open and he turned towards the cockpit. ‘I think we still have some coffee left if you want.’

Keith didn’t answer. And with that the conversation was over.  
He sighed. Smoothing the ripples he had just caused would take hours, maybe days. Shiro had never been the kind of person to wear his emotions on his sleeve but being by himself for so long had caused him to bottle them up even further. Keith wished they had a training deck to release all that pent up negative energy. Or just more room in general. Maybe he was becoming claustrophobic.  
He braced himself on the small sink, taking deep breaths. His fingertips started to tingle.  
The day had barely started and he was not going to waste it. It was another day with Shiro and he was going to make the best of it. If Shiro did not want to go back to Earth because of all the bad memories, Keith was going to respect that. Perhaps he could convince him to spend a week on one of the nearby planets. One with a sun, starry skies and actual gravity.

In a slightly better mood he got dressed and followed Shiro to the cockpit. It doubled as their dining room, living room and kitchen. There was a tube of gray food paste and a dry biscuit on a plate next to a steaming mug of black water.  
Keith turned to Shiro to thank him and halted. Wet streaks stained his cheeks and Shiro quickly wiped his eyes with the hem of his sleeve.  
Keith had seen him cry. When he had shown up a couple weeks ago on the stolen MFE fighter. The cargo hatch had opened to let him land and Shiro was in his arms only a few seconds later. That had been tears of happiness. Now they were different.

‘I’m sorry,’ Shiro said and it took a lot of effort to keep his voice from breaking. ‘Sometimes I forget that this isn’t real.’

Keith carefully reached out a hand to touch Shiro’s shoulder.  
‘What do you mean? It is real.’

Shiro grabbed his wrist and pulled him down, leaving him no time to be surprised by the sudden burst of emotion. His arms wrapped around his shoulders in a crushing hug. The air was knocked from Keith’s lungs.  
Shiro’s voice was a shaky breath against his cheek.  
‘I know it’ just-... sometimes-...’

Keith returned the hug, gently running a hand along his back. ‘It’s okay. Sometimes I can’t believe it either.’

Shiro buried his face in the crook of his neck.  
‘He didn’t run off with someone else,’ he said, his words muffled by Keith’s skin and his sobs. ‘He died fighting Lotor. He sacrificed himself to save everyone. He was a hero.’

Keith’s blood ran cold. He remembered. In his reality he had been willing to steer his ship right into the muzzle of the huge laser canon. Only a miracle had prevented it. Just one second more and their realities had not diverted.  
He could finally place those weird sensations. His limbs evaporating in the heat, his flesh turning to ash, his jet blasting to pieces in the explosion.  
No wonder Shiro avoided this topic. He had lost him that day.

‘Please don’t leave me again.’

Keith kissed the top of his head. ‘Of course not.’  
The same promise he had made his wolf.  
Keith knew that with him here, their realities would slowly start to merge. Until only one remained. And he had a feeling he knew which one.

He held Shiro until they had both calmed down. Then he gulped down his breakfast, counting the stars on the horizon. They travelled in silence to nowhere in particular, never reaching their goal, their fingers entangled.  
He did not know how much longer he had. Nor did he care. He had been ready to die with Shiro more than once already. And he was sure this was not the only reality where it had actually happened.


End file.
